Professor Peter Colman

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Division:

My laboratory studies the molecular events that prevent or permit cell death. This process is crucial for maintaining good health. Failure of the cell death program is a common hallmark of cancer.

We visualise the three dimensional shapes of cell death proteins to better understanding their function in cell death. This is aiding the discovery of drugs that can kill certain types of tumour cells.

Research interest

We use structural biology to study the intrinsic pathway to cell death, controlled by the Bcl-2 family of proteins. We are seeking to better understand the molecular events that lead to the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins Bax and Bak becoming active. We are exploiting this information to discover new drugs that interfere with the apoptotic pathway.